“ To every movement of its thousand hands Of palms and leaves. And the good shade where it accepts, After long journeyings, Our steps, Pours on the weary limb A force of life and sweetness like Its mosses dim. When the lake is playing with the wind and sun, It seems a crimson heart Within, all ardent, has begun To throb with the moving wave; The gladiolus and the fervent rose, Which in their splendour move unshadowèd, Upon their vital stems expose Their cups of gold and red. Within the garden there is healthfulness. ”
Emile Verhaeren
Summary
Quotes from Afternoon (Emile Verhaeren)
“ Crystal brilliance to the air; We hear the sounds of water and the brush of wings. Oh! how your eyes are beauteous at this hour When our silver lake is gleaming in the sight Of the day arising; Your forehead radiant and your heart-beat light. Intensity of life, its goodness and its power, Like to a mighty blessedness Of your soul are part, So that to contain the anguish and the stress, Suddenly your hands have clasped my own, Laying them, as though with fear, Against your heart. ”
“ With its familiar things that people coign and shade, Where we two live alone with only witnesses The roses gazing through the window from the glade; There are some days so filled with reassuring peace, Hours of the radiant summer with silence made so fair, I sometimes bring to stillness the balancing of time Within the great oak clock that stands close by the stair. Then is the hour, the day, the night so part of us That happiness which breathes upon us hears no thing Except the ardent throbbing of your heart and mine When quick embraces heart to yearning heart do bring. ”
